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A variety of events started on the Thursday before the US Grand Prix and continued throughout the following eight days with a busy schedule to suit both track and concours fans alike. In this programme members were given the opportunity to:
As well as the FCA events the town of Indianapolis hosted several events in the centre of the town with a major concours and other displays by various car clubs. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened its doors to the FCA and gave them the honour of being the first owners club to experience driving on the big oval, furthermore the Hall of Fame Museum was the venue for a reception on the evening before the Concours. My own particular interest was to experience the FCA National Concours and I was joined on the trip by my usual polishing partners Peter and Martin. The FCA Concours is a fairly structured affair with a published set of rules and judging sheets and pre event seminar covering the rules. A second seminar took the form of a technical discussion with a panel of experts including Bill Badurski and Jim Riff answering questions on topics such as cam belt changes, synthetic oils etc. Cars firstly compete in a traditional Concours to establish the cosmetic condition of the cars, but then the owners of vehicles achieving a Platinum Award in the concours have the opportunity of entering two further stages on the following days. The first of these is the Coppa Bella Macchina where the objective is to “determine if all the equipment/ components on your Ferrari are fully functional and if everything operates as designed when the car left the factory”. The rules are that if the car fails on any point the owner has one hour to fix it before the judging continues, any subsequent failure means exclusion. If the car successfully completes this competition you receive a “Coppa Bella Macchina Award” at the awards banquet. Owners who have successfully negotiated these first two obstacles then
have the opportunity to take part in the prestigious “Coppa GT”
which is the highest award an individual can achieve at the FCA Annual
Meet. This award is based upon the driver’s ability to control his
particular car and takes into account the entrant’s car such that
a newer car with more modern equipment will not have an advantage over
an older Ferrari since it is the driver’s abilities that are being
measured not the car’s. The awards ceremony was held on the Wednesday evening at the Indiana Roof Garden Ballroom when the assembled company enjoyed a splendid dinner, were treated to a brief personal history of the setting up of the FCA and the Class winners were awarded their trophies. I am pleased to say that I did not come away empty handed having won a Pirelli Calendar in the raffle!! (at least it made the Customs Officer smile!). Throughout the event we were made welcome by the organizers Mike Epifiano, Fred Panici and Joe Adams from the FCA Central States Region. The organization of such an event must have been exhausting, not just because of the number of rounds of golf which were necessary to convince the Indy Authorities to open their doors, but to their credit the event ran like clockwork and they rightly deserved the praise they received from their fellow members. Oh, by the way, there was a "Grand Prix" which Ferrari won.
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